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Ax attack spooks Lunenburg

By Alana Melanson, amelanson@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
04/24/2014 07:44:40 AM EDT

LUNENBURG -- Residents of the quiet South Row Road neighborhood are reeling after authorities allege a 47-year-old woman attacked her boyfriend with an ax early Wednesday morning, leaving him in critical condition.

Rhonda Ravanis, of 140 South Row Road, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, vandalizing property, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. She also damaged a door and broke a window in a neighbor's house, according to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.

Her boyfriend, Robert J.

Rhonda Ravanis, of 140 South Row Road, Lunenburg, is charged with attacking her boyfriend with an ax. Her home was surrounded by police tape as officers investigated. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE PHOTOS / JOHN LOVE

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Volpe, 53, of the same address, was in stable but critical condition Wednesday at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.

According a statement by Lunenburg police filed in Fitchburg District Court:

Police were called to the couple's home shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday.

A man who lives across the street from Ravanis woke up at 1:09 a.m. to a loud banging noise coming from the front of his home. He told police he saw Ravanis strike the front steel door of his home and shatter the front picture window with an ax.

Ravanis then returned to her residence. When approached, she said: "I axed him. He is gone. I am all alone."

Volpe was found inside the home, lying in bed and covered in blood, suffering from a large gash to the side of his neck.

She then said she wanted to smoke a cigarette, and continued: "I saved us all money and axed him. We both know what's been going on here."

As police attempted to arrest her, Ravanis allegedly spit at and kicked officers, who had to forcefully push her into the back seat of the cruiser.

Ravanis was scheduled for arraignment Wednesday morning in Fitchburg District Court, but she was uncooperative.

Police say Ravanis used an ax to damage her neighbor's door.

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She refused medical treatment and spit in the face of her court-appointed lawyer, according to court documents.

Judge Andrew L. Mandell ordered her held without bail and to undergo evaluation for competency at the Worcester Recovery Center, where she was sent on Wednesday, according to Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. spokesman Tim Connolly. He said Ravanis will be arraigned in Fitchburg District Court on May 22.

Early's office intends to file a motion for a dangerousness hearing at Ravanis' arraignment.

"It's unbelievable," said Jason Stone, 15, a neighbor of Ravanis. "You'd never think somewhere in Lunenburg this would happen.

An investigator walks away from the home of Rhonda Ravanis, who face charges related to an ax attack on her boyfriend. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN LOVE

Sentinel and Enterprise staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

"

Jason, speaking with his mother's permission, said he was up late playing video games and Skyping with a friend during his April school vacation from school when he began to hear screams outside at about 1 a.m., despite wearing noise-canceling headphones so as not to disturb other members of his family.

"I heard some faint screaming, and then maybe five, 10 minutes later I heard the bashing on my neighbor's door," he said.

Jason said his mom woke him at 6 a.m., telling him Ravanis had tried to kill her boyfriend.

He said his family, which moved to the neighborhood from Ayer in November, had never paid much attention to the bright-green home across the street, but a series of incidents involving Ravanis on Easter Sunday caught their attention.

Jason said his mother, as a friendly gesture, allowed Ravanis to borrow a decorative flag to hang outside her house, which was still up Wednesday afternoon. When his mother went to visit Ravanis Sunday morning, he said, Volpe woke up and she wished him a happy Easter -- and that's when things turned sour. Jason said Ravanis allegedly threatened to kill his mother multiple times and told her, "Don't talk to my man," before ordering her to bring her an 18-pack of beer.

He said his mother came home crying after the incident.

Later in the day, when other family members were visiting for the holiday, Jason said his father went outside for a cigarette and borrowed a lighter from Ravanis, who was out cleaning her yard. He said Ravanis then caused a scene outside, yelling and swearing.

"After Easter, we started to pay attention to her," Jason said. "She paces around her yard, talking to herself, and yelling to herself weird things about the CIA."

He described Ravanis as heavyset and of medium height with curly blondish hair.

"The tone of her voice just pierces through you," Jason said. "It's like a shock that's going down your spine -- just instant chills."

Jason's mother, who declined to give her name because of alleged threats made against her by Ravanis, said she intends to take out a restraining order against Ravanis.

They said an older couple next door, whose home Ravanis allegedly attacked, are friendly people and that they did not deserve what happened.

The couple did not answer the door for reporters. A police officer at the scene said the couple requested that police keep visitors away.

The case remains under investigation by the state police detectives assigned to the District Attorney's Office and Lunenburg police.

State police Sgt. James Nanof, who was at the scene Wednesday afternoon as crime-lab employees gathered and removed evidence from the home, referred all comment to the Early's office.

According to Sentinel & Enterprise archives, in October 2012, Ravanis allegedly assaulted two emergency-medical technicians attempting to transport her from Fitchburg District Court to HealthAlliance Hospital Leominster.

According to court documents, Ravanis was in court custody when she allegedly faked a seizure and urinated on herself, and then slipped out of her stretcher restraints. According to a police report, she began to yell "maniacal" phrases such as "I am the master of time! Take my watch!" before pulling a female EMT's hair and spitting in the face of another.

The incident earned Ravanis a charge of assault and battery on ambulance personnel.

In February 2010, Ravanis, believed to be emotionally distraught, was reported missing by her boyfriend. She was missing for two days before searchers found her in a makeshift shelter of pine-tree branches in the woods off of Gilchrist Road in Townsend, about a mile from her Lunenburg home.

City Editor Chris Camire contributed to this report. Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alanasentinel or on Twitter @alanamelanson.

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